Self-adjusting control device for flushing system mechanism

ABSTRACT

A self-adjusting control device for a flushing system mechanism borne by a stirrup and provided with pivoting arms actuated by fingers borne by pull-handles for flushing the water, the water flush control being provided via rods acting on the head of the pivoting arms, by externally accessible control knobs on the water flushing apparatus lid. The device comprises: a housing (16) containing the control knobs (19, 20), provided with a thread pitch (p1); an insert (14), integral in rotation with the housing (16) provided with a thread pitch (p2); a fitting (25) borne by the insert (14) carries the pivoting axis (26) of the arms (10, 11); the thread pitches (p1, p2) are in the ratio p1/p2 =L1/L2 of the vertical projections of the distances from the axis of the finger (33, 34) (L1) to the contact points (31, 32) of the heads (29, 30) of the arms (10, 11) and the rods (21, 22), and (L2) to the pivoting axis (26) of the arms (10, 11).

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This is the 35 USC 371 national stage of international applicationPCT/FR98/00726 filed on Apr. 10, 1998, which designated the UnitedStates of America.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention refers to a self-adjustable control device for a cisternflushing mechanism, and especially to such a mechanism for a ceramiccistern, a flush control being provided by a button placed on thecistern's lid.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In ceramic cisterns, cistern elevations and lid elevations are likely tochange from one cistern to another. Generally, variations in elevationare of a few millimeters but may be in excess of tens of millimeters.

Usually, pre-adjustment of the elevation of the flushing mechanism iscarried out by using the bracket which connects the upper part of themechanism bearing the control button, and the lower part bearing thevalve. This bracket includes two vertical arms provided with teethregularly distributed on the arm's elevation generally with a 15 mmstep. It happens that a pre-adjustment carried out by means of thebracket's teeth brings the control button exactly to the elevation ofthe top of the lid of the ceramic cistern.

However, usually the control button's position has to be adjusted. Thisadjustment is carried out by removing the control button and by cuttingwith an appropriate tool the vertical rod imparting the control pressureto the swivelling arm which provides, via a pull handle, for opening ofthe valve. The control button is then put back into place.

The technical problem posed by the adjustment of the control button'sposition is critical in the case of a flushing mechanism capable ofproviding two flushes of different volumes by means of two buttonsplaced side by side. The two vertical rods must then be cut to the sameelevation, if either of them is cut too short, it must be replaced. Thatis why in the proposed assemblies for fitting to cisterns, flushingmechanisms are accompanied by several, generally four or five, rods.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One of the objects of the invention is to propose a flushing mechanismwherein no intervention on the vertical rods providing control isrequired for adjusting of the control button's position.

Another object of the invention is to propose a flushing mechanismwherein adjustment of the control button's position is performed simplyby manual screwing.

Still another object of the invention is to propose a flushing mechanismwherein the control button's orientation is not linked to the positionof the mechanism in the cistern.

The object of the invention is a self-adjustable device for controllinga cistern mechanism supported by a bracket and provided with swivellingarms capable, by acting on fingers provided on pull handles, oftriggering the flushing, control of the flushing being provided, viarods acting on the head of the swivelling arms, by control buttonsaccessible from outside on the lid of the cistern, characterized in thatit includes:

a casing containing control buttons and provided with a thread of pitchp1 at its lower part,

a socket rotatably integral with said casing and provided with a threadof pitch p2,

a frame supported by said socket and supporting the axis of rotation ofsaid swivelling arms,

thread pitches p1 and p2 being determined in the ratio p1/p2=L1/L2 ofthe vertical projections of the distances (L1, L2) from the axis of saidfingers on the one hand to the contact positions of the heads of theswivelling arms and of said rods, and on the other hand to the axis ofrotation of the swivelling arms,

the bracket supporting a threaded sleeve with thread pitch p1 and athreaded ring with thread pitch p2,

in such a way that screwing in of the casing until it rests against thecistern's lid automatically provides adjustment of the position of theaxis of rotation of the swivelling arms for providing control of theflushing without adjustment of the length of the rods.

According to other features:

the socket is made such as to be rotatably integral with the casing bykeying;

the frame is supported by the socket via a flange positioned at thelower part of the socket and on which the frame slides upon rotation ofthe socket;

the casing bears at its upper part a supporting flange on the cistern'slid.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features will be apparent from the following description withreference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is an overview of a flushing mechanism including theself-adjustable control device according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front view of the self-adjustable control device accordingto the invention;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view along line AA of FIG. 2, at an enlargedscale;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the device according to the inventionafter its removal;

FIG. 5 is a similar view to FIG. 4, only showing the flush controls.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In FIG. 1, a flushing mechanism is illustrated in its entirety, with avalve 1, a bell 2, a bracket 3 the vertical arms of which are providedwith teeth 4 for pre-adjustment in elevation, a control device 5, afloat 6, a rocker 7, two pull handles 8, 9 for controlling the openingof the valves corresponding to a full flush and to a partial flush,respectively, and two swivelling arms 10, 11 for lifting the pullhandles 8, 9, respectively, on manual actuation of the correspondingpush-buttons.

In FIG. 2, the control device is designated by the general referencenumber 5, the bracket is shown with its two vertical arms supportingeach of the teeth 4 for pre-adjustment in elevation, and two swivellingarms 10 and 11 are shown without the pull handles 8, 9.

In FIG. 3, an example of an embodiment of the control device 5 of theflushing mechanism is shown, according to the invention. Bracket 3, theposition of which is fixed relatively to the cistern, supports athreaded ring 12 and a threaded sleeve 13, also fixed relatively to thecistern.

Inside the threaded ring 12, a socket 14 is positioned which includes athread with pitch p2 matching the threaded ring 12. The lower part 15 ofa casing 16 is positioned within the threaded sleeve 13. This lower part15 is threaded with a thread pitch p1 matching that of the threadedsleeve 13.

The upper part of the casing 16 includes a flange 17 provided for lyingon the ceramic lid 18 of the cistern. The upper part of the casing 16has the shape of a cylindrical cup and it contains two flush buttons 19and 20, which control full flushing and partial flushing respectively.

Control button 19 for full flushing bears a rod 21 the lower part ofwhich has the shape of a tube and may move without friction withinsocket 14. Control button 20 for partial flushing supports a rod 22 thelower part of which is at the same level as the lower part of rod 21supported by button 19, and it slides within the lower part of rod 21.Both rods 21 and 22 cross the bottom 23 of the cup forming the upperpart of casing 16, by passing through apertures so as to be free to moveaxially, but both are rotatably integral with casing 16.

At the lower part, socket 14 exhibits a flange 24 on which lies a frame25 supporting the axis 26 of rotation of swivelling arms 10, 11.

Frame 25 moves with socket 14 axially, but it slides on flange 24 anddoes not follow the rotary movement of socket 14, so that axis 26 movesaxially, remaining parallel to itself.

Each of arms 10, 11 exhibit at their lower ends a hook, 27, 28respectively, on which hangs a pull handle 8, 9 respectively. At theirupper ends, arms 10, 11 exhibit a head 29, 30 respectively which abutunder the lower end of rods 21, 22 respectively, in abutment positions31, 32 respectively.

Pull handles 8, 9 bear at their upper ends a finger 33, 34 respectively,for hanging them on hooks 27, 28 respectively.

For a specific swivelling arm, for example, 10, finger 3, axis 26 andabutment position 31 are aligned, and in a vertical projection, thedistance from the centre of the finger 33 to the centre of axis 26 isL2, and the distance from centre of finger 33 to abutment position 31 isL1.

Mounting the flushing mechanism in a ceramic cistern is carried out bypre-adjusting the elevation by means of teeth 4 of bracket 3, in orderto have the upper flange 17 of casing 16 located as near as possibleabove the lid 18 of the cistern. However, as the step of teeth 4 isabout 15 mm, it may happen that the flange 17 is in a position as inFIG. 3 and that the lid is in position 18a, the gap between the twopositions being H1. To make flange 17 move downwards by an elevation ofH1, casing 16 must be rotated, which screws into the threaded sleeve 13.In its rotation, the casing drives socket 14 by keying symbolized at 35.Socket 14 screws into threaded ring 12, drawing along frame 25 in itsdownward motion. Casing 16 moves downward with thread pitch p1 andsocket 14 moves downward with thread pitch p2, which is different fromp1. Downward motion of casing 16 by an elevation of H1 causes downwardmotion of the abutment position 31, 32 by the same elevation H1.Downward motion of socket 14 by an elevation H2 different from H1 asthread pitch p2 is different from p1, causes axis 26 to move downwardsby the same elevation H2. The number of screwing turns being the samefor casing 16 and socket 14, elevations H1 and H2 are proportional tothreads p1 and p2 respectively, with the same proportionality factor,giving the relationship:

    H1/p1=H2/p2,

i.e.

    H1/H2=p1/p2

Fingers 33 and 34 are fixed as their home position is defined bypre-adjustment of bracket 3 and by the fixed length of pull handles 8,9. In order that swivelling arms 10, 11 remain in an effective positionduring downward motion of casing 16 and of socket 14, it is necessarythat the centre of fingers 33, 34, the centre of axis 26 and abutmentposition 31, 32 remain aligned whichever the position of the casingduring the downward motion. This condition is fulfilled if elevations H1and H2 are in the same ratio as distances L1 and L2, i.e. if:

    H1/H2=L1/L2

Putting together both above equations leads to the relationship

    p1/p2=L1/L2

According to the invention, thread pitches p1 and p2 of threads ofcasing 16 and of socket 14 are in the same ratio as distances L1 and L2.

Accordingly, when the position of casing 16 is changed so as to matchthe elevation of the ceramic lid of the cistern, the position of socket14 is also changed in proportion of distances L1 and L2 in such a waythat fingers 33, 34 remaining fixed, position of axis 26 is changed insuch a way that heads 29, 30 of swivelling arms 10, 11 remain inabutment at contact positions 31, 32 under rods 21, 22.

As a result, there is no need to change the length of rods 21, 22 forproviding adjustment of the flush mechanism according to the position ofthe cistern's lid.

According to the invention, the control button's position is independentof the position of the mechanism in the cistern, which enables themechanism to be located in the most advantageous position in the cisternfor making the float work properly on the one hand, and the button to belocated at the most suitable position for the user on the other hand.

According to the invention, fitting of the flushing mechanism to thevariable positions of the lid of the cistern is automatically providedby simply screwing therein casing 16.

The relative positions of the different elements of the control devicefor a flushing mechanism according to the invention are better viewed inFIGS. 4 and 5.

The invention has been described for a particular embodiment, but it isnot limited to a particular structure of the different constituentelements which may be replaced by their technical equivalents.Particularly it is applicable to the case of a flushing system with asingle control.

Given that once the flushing mechanism is placed in the cistern, allthat is needed is to proceed with the screwing in of the casing 16 toautomatically adjust the control device, this device may justly bequalified as self-adjustable.

What is claimed is:
 1. A self-adjustable device for controlling acistern flushing mechanism comprising:a bracket for supporting saidflushing mechanism, said bracket having swivelling arms structured andarranged, by action on fingers provided by pull handles, to trigger theflushing; rods acting on heads of the swivelling arms for controllingthe flushing; a casing including control buttons accessible from outsidea lid of the cistern and having a thread of pitch p1 at its lower part;a socket rotatably integral with said casing and having a thread ofpitch p2; a frame supported by said socket and supporting an axis ofrotation of said swivelling arms; said thread pitches p1 and p2 beingdetermined in a ratio p1/p2=L1/L2 of vertical projections of distancesL1 and L2 from the axis of said fingers to contact positions of saidheads and of said rods, and to the axis of rotation of the swivellingarms; said bracket supporting a threaded sleeve with thread pitch p1 anda threaded ring with thread pitch p2; whereby screwing in of the casinguntil said casing rests against the cistern's lid automatically providesadjustment of the position of the axis of rotation and control of theflushing without adjustment of the length of the rods.
 2. The deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein the socket is rotatably integral with thecasing, by keying.
 3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the frameis supported by the socket via a flange positioned at a lower part ofthe socket, said flange sliding upon rotation of the socket.
 4. Thedevice according to claim 1, wherein the casing bears at its upper parta flange for resting against the lid of the cistern.